Dodgers Team News

MLB Report: Rob Manfred is Set to Honor Original March Agreement, Schedule Coming Soon

Early on Monday, the Major League Baseball Players Association rejected MLB’s latest 2020 season proposal leaving commissioner Rob Manfred in a precarious position. That position was to honor the original March 26th agreement that the union has been asking for over the last several weeks.

Here’s the latest from an official MLB statement.



Today, the Major League Baseball Players Association informed us that they have rejected the agreement framework developed by Commissioner Manfred and Tony Clark. Needless to say, we are disappointed by this development.

The framework provided an opportunity for MLB and its players to work together to confront the difficulties and challenges presented by the pandemic. It gave our fans the chance to see an exciting new Postseason format. And, it offered players significant benefits including:

  1. The universal DH for two years
  2. A guaranteed $25 million in playoff pools in 2020
  3. $33 million in forgiven salary advances that would increase the take home pay of 61% of Major League players
  4. Overall earnings for players of 104 percent of prorated salary
  5. Over the last two days, MLB agreed to remove expanded Postseason in 2021 in order to address player concerns

In view of this rejection, the MLB Clubs have unanimously voted to proceed with the 2020 season under the terms of the March 26th Agreement. The provisions listed above will not be operative.

In order to produce a schedule with a specific number of games, we are asking that the Players Association provide to us by 5:00 p.m. (ET) tomorrow with two pieces of information. The first is whether players will be able to report to camp within seven days (by July 1st). The second is whether the Players Association will agree on the Operating Manual which contains the health and safety protocols necessary to give us the best opportunity to conduct and complete our regular season and Postseason.

What’s Next?

So yes, after coming to terms on updated health and safety protocols amid the currently still-active pandemic, there may, in fact, be a baseball season soon. Additionally, clubs need to confirm that players can arrive at a designated spring training 2.0 sites in time for a July 1 report date.

With how negotiations have gone over the last handful of weeks, the expression don’t hold your breath quickly comes to mind…

Moreover, July 24 is listed as the tentative new opening day for what will be a 60-game baseball season.

If you’re looking for the TL;DR version, former MLB GM Jim Bowden sums it up here.

We’re not out of it yet, but baseball is on our doorstep.

NEXT: Rob Manfred Could Cost the Dodgers a World Series

Clint Pasillas

Clint Pasillas has been writing, blogging, and podcasting about the Los Angeles Dodgers since 2008. Under Clint's leadership as the Lead Editor, Dodgers Nation has grown into one of the most read baseball sites in the world with millions of unique visitors per month. Find him online on Twitter/X or his YouTube channel!

One Comment

  1. The 60 games is enough by itself to make this an illegitimate season and consequently postseason. No expanded playoffs doesn’t make it any better once you get to that small number of games. The one and only thing that could make this legit is going old school and having the best 2 teams go straight to the World Series, having to finish with the best record in the league with just 60 games could be respected, you have to prove you’re the best right out of the gate, something that is tough. You can’t go 30-30 or worse and make the playoffs like what will happen here with this proposal

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